宋高僧傳 28.8

28.8

Shi Zunhui, whose secular surname was Li, was a native of Qiaojun. For generations his family did not hold office. His mother, Lady Zhang, dreamed that a divine being gave her a precious gem, whereupon she became pregnant. At birth and infancy he was extraordinary; while nursing, he was adept at recognizing people's joy and anger. As he grew older, whenever he saw a temple or monastery, he would inevitably slow his steps and linger, looking about and unwilling to leave. When he was just eleven, he took Vinaya Master Chongyin of Kaiyuan Temple in Baocheng as his exemplar. He recited the Lotus Sūtra, completing the entire text in two weeks, and from this applied himself diligently to study. When he was nearly twenty, he received the precepts and Vinaya; in keeping those Vinaya rules, he was as unyielding as a fixed boulder. He sought teachers in West Luoyang and inquired into the Way in Liangyuan, initially receiving the Lotus Sūtra from Dharma Master Zhiqian. When lecturing on its subtle meaning he penetrated it miraculously, fluent and confident in his criticisms. In the second year of Kaiping of the Liang (a wuchen year, 908), he resided in the Bhaiṣajyaguru Cloister of Xiangguo Temple and first lectured on what he had mastered. By the second year of Changxing of the Later Tang (a xinmao year, 931), disciples successively requested his instruction; he had already completed nineteen rounds, and more than twenty people were admitted to his hall. In the second year of Tianfu (937), Grand Master Jiyong of Mount Wutai, who had thoroughly mastered the great Avataṃsaka Sūtra, personally entered the Eastern Capital to present merits on the birthday festival of the Jin founder. Hui admired Master Yong’s river of eloquence and ocean of scripture, followed him with humility, and received permission to lecture and expound. Hui was good at being low so that all rivers flowed to him, densely accumulating into an ocean-treasury! In the Liang and Song areas, because Yong ceased lecturing, they requested Hui to expound; the vacant hall was completely packed, monastics and laypeople gathering like clouds. He solicited the fourfold assembly to carve a copy of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra on the stone walls on three sides of the lecture hall. Sighing over the vulnerability of paper to fire, he had it inscribed on this durable stone so it would never suffer the gnawing of silverfish. Before the work was declared finished, the donations were already sufficient. He also summoned monastics and laypeople, each to recite one roll, obtaining 240 people to form three complete sets, and held scripture assemblies in the four seasons for nearly twenty years without interruption. He also separately offered water-and-land ritual food to ghosts and spirits, urging everyone to adorn their practice with the bodhicitta. The court revered him and honored his merit, bestowing the title Grand Master Zhenxing. On the sixteenth day of the first month of the second year of Kaiyun (an yisi year, 945), he showed signs of illness. Leaning on his staff, he finished instructing his disciples, then lay down on his right side, intoned the Buddha's name, and after a moment passed away for ever. He lived to the age of seventy-one, with a dharma age of fifty-one. Following his bequest, his disciples buried him north of the Sui River, on the eastern plain of the temple’s estate. Next, there was Shi Yanqiu of Longhua Temple in Hangzhou, whose secular surname was Ye and was a native of Jinyun. He received the precepts during the Zhenming era of the Liang and approached Jingxiao’s Vinaya lecture seat, gaining a transcendent insight into the profound secrets of the Vinaya. Just as he was about to pass it on and lecture, he suddenly became enlightened like a pātravyūha arhat, and turned to seek the steadfast Dharma. Thereupon he traveled to the mountains of Min, obtaining the mind-seal from Dhyāna Master Changqing. Returning to Zhejiang, he accepted the invitation of the people of Danqiu and resided at Liutong Cloister; his reputation in the Way was purely fragrant, rivaling the Sichuan pepper and mountain cinnamon in intense scent. Qian, King of Hannan, admired his lofty conduct and ordered him to reside at Gongchen Cloister. In his later years he returned to the prefectural seat at Longhua Temple, gathering disciples and expounding the teaching. Qiu was fond of managing communal affairs and always took the lead himself, making the benefiting of others his only urgency, and whenever he received offerings he always surrendered them. The door of his dwelling room was never latched, and his trunks were never locked; he did not permit nuns to pay respects, and did not fawn on prestige and power. Whenever ordinands took the precepts, people gathered from all around; he provided daily meals for thousands of monks without ever claiming a shortage. All told, he fed tens of thousands of people. He passed away at his temple during the Jianlong era of the Song.